Stress and Depression Training Toolkit

The Stress and Depression Toolkit modules are designed to enhance users’ knowledge of mental health surrounding pregnancy. There are links to internet resources throughout the Modules to help you learn the content. There are questions and scenarios in each Module which will help you use the information you are learning. At the end of each of the Modules, you will be able to quiz yourselves on what you have learned.

Module 1: Stress
Part 1 – What is Stress?
Part 2 – The Context of Stress: Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Class (Income)
Part 3 – Stress and the Body

Module 2: Stress, Emotions, and Depression
Part 1 – Stress and Emotional Responses
Part 2 – Depression
Part 3 – Stress, Anxiety, and Depression During Pregnancy
Part 4 – Paternal Stress and Depression

Module 3: Intervention
Part 1 – Mental Health Care
Part 2 – Self Care
Part 3 – Social Support

Learning Objectives:

By the end of Module 1 (Part 1-3), you should be able to:

  1. Identify stress and the types of stress that people experience.
  2. Educate your clients on how stress negatively impacts physical and mental health outcomes leading to chronic illnesses and poor birth outcomes.
  3. Understand the contexts of stress as they inform the experiences that individuals identify as stressful and how they react to them.

By the end of Module 2 (Part 1-4), you should be able to:

  1. Understand how stress leads to emotional responses including anxiety.
  2. Recognize the different forms of depression.
  3. Understand how stress affects pregnancy and the postpartum period.
  4. Identify paternal stress and depression.

By the end of Module 3 (Parts 1-3), you will gain an understanding of:

  1. The importance of mental health care.
  2. The importance of self care: exercise, nutrition, meditation, and sleep for reducing stress.
  3. The role of social support.

Depression Father/Partner Involvement Mental Health

MotherWoman

MotherWoman promotes the resilience and empowerment of mothers and their communities by building community capacity and advocating for just policies through evidence based research and grassroots organizing. MotherWoman hosts support groups for postpartum women (in MA, CA and NY), provides training for healthcare and social service providers, supports communities in creating coalitions to address the issue of perinatal emotional complications and perinatal mood disorders on the community level, and works to raise awareness about social and economic justice issues and promote policies that positively impact mothers, children and families on the regional and national levels. The MotherWoman Support Group Model is replicable and has been successful with a broad diversity of postpartum mothers in a wide variety of settings. MotherWoman’s commitment to diversity and inclusion allows for diverse mothers to find common ground, inspiration and community with each other.

Depression Health Equity Mental Health

Improving Behavioral Health Equity for Pregnant Women, Mothers and their Babies

For 25 years, Healthy Start staff have been making mothers and babies a priority. Pregnant women are getting care earlier and fewer babies are dying. However, we now have a serious and growing problem with substance use and depression during pregnancy, newborns dependent on opioids and other substances, and significant differences in health conditions and treatment across populations. Together, we can strengthen the behavioral health of women and their families, and do more to address mental health and substance use in ways that respond to the needs of culturally diverse communities.

Healthy Start has always worked hard to screen and refer women and their families, but with challenges related to substance use and depression, we need new, more comprehensive, and more relevant strategies and solutions. Healthy Start programs have an opportunity to identify strategies and supports that address the needs of culturally diverse communities to prevent and treat life-threatening mental health and substance use disorders. As part of Healthy Start, you can be an important part of a new trend of fewer substance-exposed newborns, fewer pregnant women who use substances, and more women receiving much-needed mental health care during and after pregnancy.

Join us as we learn together about what can make it difficult for pregnant women and their families to be as healthy as possible, how you can help address obstacles and challenges that can mean unfair and unequal care for different populations, and about other considerations that can help you as you support children and families.

Presenters will actively engage participants throughout the webinar. They will also include current examples from culturally diverse populations, such as Tribal, Latinx, and African American communities to keep the discussion relevant to communities where Healthy Start staff and families live, work, and play.

Find webinar materials here:

Alcohol/Drug Services Depression Health Equity

ACOG Postpartum Toolkit

Often referred to as “The Fourth Trimester,” the weeks after birth are a critical time for a woman and her infant, setting the stage for long-term health and well-being. This comprehensive toolkit, with an introduction by Dr. Haywood Brown, includes extensive resources on the key components of postpartum care, including support for new mothers, reproductive life planning, infant care, counseling for substance use, long-term weight management, and many more pertinent topics. It also features a sample postpartum checklist for women to complete.

Alcohol/Drug Services Breastfeeding Chronic Disease Depression Healthy Weight Immunization Intimate Partner Violence Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning Safe Sleep Tobacco Cessation

STDs and Pregnancy – The Facts

This colorful and easy-to-read patient brochure can be downloaded or ordered for free from the CDC. It discusses the effects of STDs on pregnancy and the importance of being tested for STDs before and/or during pregnancy. It reviews the preventive measures women can take to avoid contracting an STD before or during pregnancy and emphasizes the importance of being treated during pregnancy if required.

Prenatal Care and Education STDs including HIV

Screening for Syphilis Infection in Pregnancy

The incidence of syphilis in American women doubled between 2012 and 2016, and the incidence of congenital syphilis rose concomitantly. Congenital syphilis can lead to stillbirth, neonatal death, and lasting effects such as bone deformities and neurologic impairment in the newborn. Because of this, the USPSTF has reiterated its guidance that all pregnant women be tested for syphilis at their first prenatal visit. They also point out that many organizations recommend repeat testing of high-risk women in the third trimester and at delivery.

Prenatal Care and Education STDs including HIV

HIV and Pregnancy

This patient handout in the form of questions and answers is designed to inform pregnant women and women planning a pregnancy about the risks of HIV infection during pregnancy. It covers the basics of HIV infection, its potential risks to pregnant women and their babies, and how these risks can be minimized with early diagnosis, certain preventive measures, and HIV treatment.

Prenatal Care and Education STDs including HIV

ACOG Committee Opinion on Optimizing Postpartum Care

Because one half of all pregnancy-related maternal deaths occur postpartum, the weeks following childbirth are a critical period for a woman and her infant. In addition, health issues that arise in pregnancy can persist and presage long-term medical problems. In this Committee Opinion, ACOG lays out a new vision for postpartum care, redefining it as an ongoing process beginning within the first 3 weeks postpartum and tailored to a woman’s needs. The document includes practical advice on postpartum care as well as useful charts including a Timeline for Postpartum Care, a listing of The Components of Postpartum Care, and a table identifying Members of the Postpartum Care Team.

Breastfeeding Chronic Disease Depression Reproductive Life Planning/Family Planning

Ask the Expert: The Fourth Trimester: A new paradigm for preventing maternal mortality

Given the urgent need to reduce maternal morbidity and mortality, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) released a revised Committee Opinion to reinforce the importance of the “fourth trimester,” and to propose a new paradigm for postpartum care.  Redefining postpartum care is an initiative set forth by ACOG’s  most recent past president Haywood L. Brown, M.D. Dr. Brown will share more on the fourth trimester paradigm in the context of Healthy Start during this Ask the Expert webinar.

Other

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